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Some of the African savannah’s most biologically diverse wildlife hotspots owe their vitality to heaps of manure deposited over thousands of years by livestock of wandering herders, says a new study.

One death has been reported so far from the storm. Gordon’s winds were just below hurricane-force last night when it made landfall just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border.

What you’re smelling is petrichor – a pleasant, earthy scent that accompanies a storm’s first raindrops. A weather expert explains where it comes from.

Besides humans, only 4 species are known to experience menopause, and they’re all whales – belugas, narwhals, killer whales and short-finned pilot whales.

Interbreeding between Burmese and Indian pythons in South Florida might have resulted in what geneticists call “hybrid vigor.” One result is that the snakes seem to have adapted to both swamps and high, dry ground.

“What breed is he? is often the first question people ask about a dog, but the answer is often terribly inaccurate,” said the author of a new genetic study of shelter dogs.